Healthy, a. [Compar. Healthier; superl. Healthiest.]
1. Being in a state of health; enjoying health; hale; sound; free from disease; as, a healthy chid; a healthy plant. His mind was now in a firm and healthy state. Macaulay.
2. Evincing health; as, a healthy pulse; a healthy complexion.
3. Conducive to health; wholesome; salubrious; salutary; as, a healthy exercise; a healthy climate.
Syn. -- Vigorous; sound; hale; salubrious; healthful; wholesome; salutary.
Shades of meaning
Healthy is most correctly used to signify possessing or enjoying health or its results; as, a healthy person; a healthy condition. Healthful signifies promotive of health, tending or adapted to confer, preserve, or promote health; as, a healthful climate. Wholesome food in a healthful climate makes a healthy man. With healthful are ranged the words hygienic, salubrious, salutary, sanitary, and wholesome, while the other words are associated with healthy. Salubrious is always used in the physical sense, and is chiefly applied to air or climate. Salutary is now chiefly used in the moral sense; as, a salutary lesson.